Acer Launches Inexpensive Notebooks

Acer announced three low-to-middle end laptops on Monday, adding to its Gemstone Blue series of sleek multimedia notebooks.

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Acer announced three low-to-middle end laptops on Monday, adding to its Gemstone Blue series of sleek multimedia notebooks.

Unlike previous models in the series, the new 5536, 7735Z and 5739G models are aimed squarely at the average computer user instead of the high end of the market.

The 5536, cheapest of the series at $479.99, features a 15.6-inch display, AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core processor at 2.1 GHz, and includes 3 GB of RAM, onboard ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics, a 320-GB hard drive and a DVD combo drive.

The next step up, the 7735Z, is priced at $599.99 and contains a 17.3-inch display, an Intel Pentium T4200 processor at 2 GHz, plus 4 GB of RAM, built-in Intel graphics, a 250-GB hard drive and the same DVD combo drive as the 5536.

The most powerful of the laptops Acer announced on Monday, the 5739G, sports a 15.6-inch screen, Intel Core2 Duo T6500 processor at 2.1GHz, 4GB of RAM, a Nvidia GeForce GT130M discrete graphics chipset with 1GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, a Blu-ray/DVD combo drive and 5.1 channel Dolby Home Theater output. At about $750, it's an inexpensive entry point to Blu-ray capabilities.

The new Gemstone Blues will ship with Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1.

The new notebooks are a step up from netbooks, which typically run about $300 or so. But they often lack the notebook's capabilities, such as an optical drive.

All of the notebooks feature a stylish design similar to the one introduced in the original Gemstone Blue laptops in 2008. Notably absent is the touch-sensitive media control interface on those first, high-end Gemstones. The current lineup instead makes use of a multi-touch trackpad for use in multimedia and productivity applications alike. Built in 802.11 a/b/"draft N" Wi-Fi can provide all the bandwidth necessary to stream high-def content from the web.

For the battery conscious, the 7735Z makes use of a PowerSave key, which puts the laptop in the lowest power consumption mode without having to select it in software menus.

Business users and others worried about security will appreciate the 5536's PowerSmart key which automatically backups data, as well as the laptop's built-in fingerprint reader. Every laptop comes pre-installed with Acer's Backup Manager software.

The 5536 and 7735Z are available now, with the 5739G shipping by the end of the month.

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